Get Email Updates

The Dispatch E-Edition

All current subscribers have full access to Digital D, which includes the E-Edition and
unlimited premium content on Dispatch.com, BuckeyeXtra.com, BlueJacketsXtra.com and
DispatchPolitics.com.
Subscribe
today!

By Frank JordansAssociated Press • Saturday January 12, 2013 6:52 AM

Enlarge ImageRequest to buy this photoEdlib News NetworkRebels say they have taken control of the largest helicopter base in northern Syria — a significant blow to the military’s air campaign — and seized tanks and rocket launchers.

BERLIN — More than 50 countries have backed a call for the U.N. Security Council to refer the
crisis in Syria to the International Criminal Court, a move that would open the way for war-crimes
prosecutions.

A draft of the letter obtained yesterday by the Associated Press says the matter should be
referred to the Hague-based war crimes tribunal “without exceptions and irrespective of the alleged
perpetrators.”

“At the very least, the council should send out an unequivocal message … announcing that it
intends to refer the situation to the ICC unless a credible, fair and independent accountability
process is being established in a timely manner” by Syria, it continues.

The letter cites the findings of a U.N. expert panel documenting summary executions, torture and
sexual violence that has occurred since the start of the uprising in March 2011. It also notes
repeated appeals by the United Nation’s top human-rights official and resolutions by the global
body’s Human Rights Council calling for a referral to the court.

The draft letter was signed by Switzerland’s ambassador to the United Nations in New York on
behalf of dozens of countries including Britain and France, two of the Security Council’s five
permanent members. The other three permanent members — the United States, China and Russia — had
not signed the draft.

A spokesman for Switzerland’s U.N. mission in New York said the letter would be submitted to the
Security Council on Monday.

Adrian Sollberger said Switzerland first proposed such a move in June 2012, and that it now had
the backing of more than 50 countries from all regions of the world, giving the call sufficient
political weight.

The Security Council is the only body that can refer Syria to the ICC because the country itself
hasn’t ratified the international convention that established the tribunal. Meanwhile, Syrian
rebels, led by jihadist battalions, said yesterday that they had seized the largest helicopter base
in the north of the country, a potentially significant blow against the government’s escalating air
campaign.Fighters from several battalions, including the jihadist groups Al Nusra Front and the
Ahrar al-Sham battalion, said they had overrun the Taftanaz air base, which rebels had been trying
to take for months, as soldiers fled and were captured, according to anti-government activists and
videos identified as having been shot at the scene.
Information from The New York Times was included in this story.